Wife Swap: Taking Over for Cancelled Zero Hour

by Trevor Kimball, March 1, 2013

There’s going to a whole lot of spouse swapping on ABC. Wife Swap will take over for cancelled Zero Hour in Thursday’s 8pm timeslot.

After three weeks of horrible ratings, ABC has pulled Zero Hour off the air, effective immediately. Their decision to axe the show came quickly but they actually ran it for one more week than I thought they would.

In any case, for the next two weeks, ABC will fill the timeslot with repeats of Shark Tank.

Starting March 21st, the network will air the seventh season of Wife Swap. ABC announced last May that they planned to bring back both the regular version and Celebrity Wife Swap but they haven’t mentioned the former since.

ABC has long had a problem filling the Thursdays at 8pm timeslot with scripted faire. Shows like My Generation, FlashForward, Last Resort, Zero Hour, and 2011’s Charlie’s Angels have all been canned.

However, non-scripted Wipeout has done decently. It’ll be interesting to see if Wife Swap performs as well or, if two versions of Wife Swap running in the same week is one too many.

After seven episodes of Wife Swap,Wipeout will take over the timeslot on May 9th.

What do you think? Are you glad to hear Wife Swap and Wipeout are returning? Should ABC stick with non-scripted shows on Thursday nights at 8pm?

It’s not just ABC. It’s the garbage that a high percentage of America finds entertaining – and being thought provoking apparently isn’t wanted or required for the most part and forget it if it is quirky or has any interesting banter. If a show requires any thought at all, it has a high chance of failure. I actually saw someone in a discussion thread say that they did not understand what was going on in Last Resort. Really? It was not that complicated. It’s means more Wife Swap and Shark Tank and less Firefly, less Carnivale, less Wonderfalls, less Pushing… Read more »

Never was a fan of ABC since NYPD Blue went off the air, since then they have had one bad show after another. They never give a show a chance, to pull without even finishing the episodes they have is bogus. A stupid show like Wife Swap is expected to do better? Give me a break, look at the 2 loosers they were promoting for the past episode. Why in heavens name would anyone want to watch those 2 has beens anyway. Maybe the final episodes of Zero Hour will appear on Netflix soon.

That’s the last straw. I will/we will – never be watching another ABC drama again until it has completed it’s run and on DVD. Too many times burned – no attempts to move the show, and no word on if we’ll see the last 10 episodes (even on a Saturday night). Enough. It was a fantastic show, but now we get more reality TV junk – reruns at that, which they think will get higher ratings? ABC … A-lways B-eing C-ancelled (so won’t be wasting our time with their network any more). Too bad, they make the best shows too… Read more »